The Welsh Colleges Easter Tour started slowly this year with just a handful of members meeting to ring at Felmersham on thursday evening. However, there were still enuogh of us to ring, with help from the Master's family, and even the Secretary had a ring! We then adjourned to the appropriately names Six Ringers pub, where we had some excellent food. As they had been previously informed that we were ringers we had "star" treatment and as the gave us some beer to take home we promised to return.
"Home" for the weekend was at St Nicholas Church, Chellington. This redundant church has been converted into a residential centre with full cooking facilities, showers and bedding. Unfortunately the toilets were still outside, and were well populated with some of the biggest spiders I've ever seen! Although the weather was wet and windy, we were kept warm and snug with a wood-burning stove, which also provided hours of amusement for some members of the group.
Friday morning came far too soon, and Milton Keynes seemed a long way away. Eventually we got to the first tower, Great Linford, wher more society members joined the tour. I was quite disapointed to find that they were more interested in the coffee and biscuits being offered and hadn't already rung the bells up. However, this was soon rectified and some reasonable ringing was had before moving on to Old Wolverton. We had some problems here with "drawn" ropes and the anticlockwise ring, but eventually we got the hang of it! The last tower before lunch was Stony Stratford where we managed to ring a touch of 8-spliced (just). The highlight of this tower was the demonstration of the electric spider!
After lunch we went to Bradwell, a lovely six, recently moved onto a balcony. The master managed to fire out a touch of spliced surprise minor here when she was 3rds place bell in Cambridge., After that it was off to the "rood loft" at Chicheley. We had been told that the bells had not been ring for some time, and so were epecting the worst, but apart from a bit of dust they were fine. The last tower of the day was North Crawley, an easy ground floow six, just what was needed at the end of a long day. Back at the hall it was decided that the best bet for a meal was a bumper balti take away from the pub! The master and Secretary sorted this out, whilst everyone else went to the local practice at Carlton, much to the delight of the Master's father.
The Saturday morning dawned a lot sunnier that Friday had been. We started the day at Clifton Reynes where sitting in the sun seemed preferable to ringing for a lot of people. The next tower was Emberton which also had a conveniently placed bench just outside the tower. We had a break for coffee and time to explore a little before ringing for a wedding at Olney. Fortunately the bells had been rung up for us, and we had some good striking on this heavy eight. After lunch we had the shortest tower of the day, Westton Underwood. We were only allowed twenty minutes of ringing on this lovely six, which was unfortunate for John Goldrick who came all the way from Bosbury just in time to hear the bells ring down. Next we visited Stoke Goldington, and we finished the day with a visit to Hanslope. Unfortunately by this time tiredness was beginning to have an effect, and our ringing did not really do justice to these bells.
In the evening we had the usual business meeting followed by a surprisingly good fish pie prepared by our catering officers. We finished off the evening in the usual way with a visit to the pub, where a locals versus WC's pool match took place. Amazingly we won and the society was presented with a souvenir key ring to mark the occasion.
For Sunday morning the Master's father had arranged a mini tower grap, taking in Harrold, Carlton, Stevington, Pavenham and Bronham. Most people elected to only visit a few, but John Goldrick went to all fice to make up for missing out the day before. After clearing the hall, we returned to the Six Ringers for more excellent food, before everyone went their seperate ways.
Many thanks are due to Martin barratt for all his help in organising this tour.